Teen dating study shows growing threat of cyber abuse

February 20, 2013|By Kate Santich, Orlando Sentinel

The abuse began soon after she "unfriended" him on Facebook for posting sexual comments. That's when he turned to threats and stalking.

His target, a young student at the University of Central Florida whom he'd met in class, took out a restraining order — but Patrick Macchione's behavior only escalated. He made more than two dozen menacing YouTube videos and emailed the links to her friends. "You MADE ME into a monster," he wrote to her on Twitter.

Macchione, now 25, eventually was arrested and sentenced early last year to four years behind bars followed by at least 15 years of probation.

Though the circumstances of the case are extreme, new research finds that the use of digital tools to harass, threaten and stalk teens is increasingly commonplace. A study released Wednesday by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Urban Institute found 26 percent of teens involved in a romantic relationship are abused by their partner via cell phones or social-media platforms.

With more than 5,600 respondents, the report is the most comprehensive study of its kind, and it comes as Harbor House — Orange County's domestic violence shelter and prevention agency — prepares to hold its second annual Teen Summit Saturday to educate young people about dating violence.

"We hear about this kind of thing constantly from kids," said Harbor House CEO Carol Wick. "You used to have to talk to people on a phone that was attached to a wall, probably in the living room.

"Now, people carry their phones with them all the time, so there's an expectation that there will be an instantaneous response. If that person is jealous anyway, that jealousy tends to grow."

Although both girls and boys report being victimized via cell phone calls, text messages, tweets, YouTube videos, Instagram and other social media, the study found the problem is worse for girls than boys, especially when the abuse is sexual in nature. About 15 percent of girls reported being sexually harassed by such means, compared to 7 percent of the boys surveyed.

The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, also found that such abuse in a relationship rarely happens in isolation: 84 percent of the teens who report digital abuse say they were also psychologically abused by their partners, 52 percent say they were also physically abused and 33 percent say they were also sexually coerced.

"New technologies — social networking sites, texts, cell phones and emails — have given abusers another way to control, degrade and frighten their partners," Urban Institute researcher Janine Zweig said.

But the situation goes beyond an old problem in a new package. As Wick points out, the ability to harass and threaten from a distance often emboldens an abuser. And kids at younger and younger ages are being pressured to email erotic photos of themselves to their romantic partners.

"When I was a teenager, no one ever asked me to take a nude picture of myself and send it to them," she said. "So there's a level of personal invasiveness that has increased."

Verizon Wireless, which helped launch a "Teen Technology Panel" three years ago in Florida, has worked with anti-domestic-violence advocates throughout Central Florida to educate about 500 students on the potential dangers.

"Even among sixth graders now, it's common for them to have cell phones," said Chuck Hamby, Verizon's public relations manager in Central Florida. "That's why we need to educate our kids about using them."

As a father of two teens, Hamby said he has had long talks with his children about the dangers. One 15-year-old he knows from his church was talked into emailing a naked picture of herself to her boyfriend — an image that was then passed on to her classmates. Humiliated, she ended up changing schools.

Experts say jealousy and controlling behaviors in teen relationships often start with photo-sharing. Boys and girls will demand their partners take pictures of themselves showing their surroundings and upload them to a social-media site that has global-positioning technology. That way they can ensure their partners are where they claim to be.

"We hear about constant calling, texting, demanding that their partner FaceTime with them so they can see the surroundings," said Harbor House spokeswoman Kathleen Kennedy. "The accusation is, 'Well, if you can't FaceTime with me, there must be a reason." And many times when they've posted a photo showing their location, the partner will just show up."

In 2009, the nonprofit organization began a campaign to teach middle- and high-school students about healthy relationships. One of the more common misconception the adults found among the teens was a feeling that, if your partner isn't jealous, he or she must not care that much about you.

Grace Williams, a Seminole County seventh-grader, said while she has avoided the problem personally, her friends have not.

"One of my friends — she was constantly being harassed, and she got really withdrawn," the 13-year-old said. "It was a lot of text messages and calls, and it got so that she wouldn't even touch her phone when it rang. … I don't know what ended up happening. We're not really in touch anymore."